


The Storm

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2018-02-17 05:22:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2298050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While out camping, Jim and Blair are caught in a storm</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Storm

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sentinel Thursday, prompt 'plate'. This is a sort-of rewrite of a scene in my longer story Never Be Forsaken

The Storm

by Bluewolf

Serendipity had led them to pitch their small tent in the shelter of a high bank so that the force of the wind, when it rose during the night to gale force, was above them.

Jim was wakened by the noise of the wind, and lay listening to it, grateful that the tent was not shaking wildly, until he heard a combined cracking and crashing sound and realized that the trees to the west were being blown down. It would make their trip back to the road difficult, he thought, but at least there were no trees close enough to hit them east of where they were, or on the bank immediately above them.

Blair slept on, oblivious.

Jim smiled slightly as he registered his friend's unbroken, even breathing, glad that the younger man continued to sleep, undisturbed by the wind. Blair was exhausted. There were times when, as well as burning the candle at both ends, he had to burn it in the middle, and the past week had been one of those times.

Jim often wished that Blair didn't have to ask one of the other TAs to stand in for him when his responsibilities as Jim's guide - or, worse, days off because of an injury - took him away from Rainier, because those favors had to be repaid. Sometimes he tried to build up favors owed to him, but he rarely had the opportunity to do that, if only because he was so busy repaying time he owed to others. This past week had been one of those times; it seemed that everyone needed one or more favors repaid that week, and he had spent nine hours a day at Rainier, given a minimum of six lectures every day and had spend roughly eight hours every evening/night grading papers. He had barely had time to eat, and twice had fallen asleep part-way through grading what he had subsequently insisted would have been the last paper of the session - not that Jim had believed him.

So on Friday night Jim had practically kidnapped him and carried him off to this quiet spot in Cascade National Forest so that he could spend two lazy days recharging his batteries.

He had slept well into Saturday morning; they had taken a short hike of perhaps five miles in the afternoon, and spent the rest of the day just relaxing. Jim himself hadn't been sorry to have the time to veg out - he was surprised how stressful it had been, not having Blair around for at least part of each working day, but there was no way he would add to Blair's stress by openly admitting it.

He had planned to have a restful Sunday as well, but it seemed that the wind had other ideas. Making their way through a tangle of windblown trees would be quite difficult... assuming the wind had dropped by morning. If it hadn't, it would be safer to stay put. And, of course, even when they reached the truck there was no guarantee that they would get any further; the road might be blocked by fallen trees.

At least it wasn't raining as well.

***

As the hours passed, however, the wind did drop considerably. Jim could still hear it, but by dawn it was no longer close to storm force, but rather a moderate to strong breeze.

Well, at least they could make an attempt to reach the truck... He went off to pee; as he did he checked the forest to their west, and blew out a long breath. Yes - that looked nasty.

He prepared a quick breakfast of sandwiches and then woke Blair.

"Huh? I didn't think we'd planned on doing much this morning?" But Blair certainly sounded much brighter than he had the previous day.

"You slept through a gale," Jim said. "There are a lot of trees down. It's going to take a while to reach the truck - and I just hope that it's okay and the road out is clear."

"Oh."

Blair headed off in his turn to pee, then came back and joined Jim in disposing of the sandwiches; they settled for drinking cold water rather than heating it for coffee.

Jim had made more sandwiches than they needed for breakfast; they packed the rest for later, then broke camp and set off.

It was far from easy. If the trees had all fallen the same way it would have been simpler, but they hadn't; the trunks of some had been snapped, others had been blown completely down, their root plates creating another barrier. Jim wasn't even sure that they were following the route they had taken getting to their camp site, but he wasn't about to discourage Blair by saying so.

As luck had it, however, he was managing to hold a fairly straight line and he scented the truck after they had been struggling through the fallen trees for nearly four hours.

Not that finding it helped them much. The truck itself was undamaged, although one or two trees had blown down at the other side of the small parking lot. Two cars sat near it, and Jim wondered if their owners were safe - not that he was in any position to go looking for them. However, the road leading away was impassible, the root plate of one massive tree having lifted half of the width of the road just outside the parking lot as it fell. It made the question of what the road was like further on academic.

Jim reached into his pocket for his cell phone.

No signal.

"The mast must be down," Blair suggested.

Jim nodded. "There's the police radio in the truck," he said, and climbed into it.

Where the cell phone had failed, the radio didn't. Jim reported the situation, also that there were two other cars there and that a search for their occupants would be necessary. He glanced at Blair, seeing how tired he was - the benefit of previous day's relaxation had been lost in the struggle to get through the fallen trees - so instead of offering to stay and help look for the other stranded campers, as his first instinct had urged, he simply agreed that he and his companion would need a helicopter rescue. The truck would have to stay put until the Forestry service could at least clear and repair the road. Then they sat in the truck as they waited, and finished their breakfast sandwiches.

***

As their rescuing helicopter lifted above the wrecked forest, they looked down at the carnage, wondering at the inconsistent nature of the damage. There were patches of utter devastation; other stretches that looked as if there was no damage at all.

Blair sighed. "You know," he said, "We were both lucky and unlucky. Unlucky to have been in an affected bit of the forest, lucky that we got out unharmed. But who knows when you'll be able to get your truck back."

Jim grinned. "If that's the only price we've to pay for our safety - it's well worth it," he said.


End file.
